What a time to exist. This last week has, amazingly, trumped much of what has come before. I mean, a man celebrated losing a general election by high-fiving a middle-aged woman’s tit. Politically, we are very drunk. Staggering left and right, eyes drooping, dance moves echoing around our body because we can still hear the music; deliriously chuntering to ourselves, oblivious to the amount of vomit on our suit. We should go home, but we won’t. The bus left hours ago. We are here and fucked. Shouting incomprehensibly at people holding hands. We have nothing but a dirty, heavy, nauseating hangover in our future. Better make this last.

And this piece has no political bias. Every way you looked was another person grandstanding; talking on tiptoes, trying to be heard over the others; promising you better and hoping to god they didn’t ever have to deliver. Promises is what got…

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I have some questions for you. Would that Lions side that lost yesterday be able to beat Saracens? The Saracens that dispatched so expertly with Munster and then Leinster on their way to back to back European titles? With all their mutual trust and pack mentality. Brits’ feet would have found a way through at some point, the ball spread wide, Wyles in the corner, you know the drill.

What about the Scarlets? That Lions side, who played together for the first time ever competitively, would they be able to cope with the rugby that saw the West Walians claim the Pro12 title in such style? We delighted at their flamboyant, length of the field, almost telepathic, efforts – James Davies to Scott Williams to DTH – too strong for a scratch side like the Lions surely?

So, therefore, Stander and Itoje and Biggar wouldn’t have liked Exeter? The Chiefs…

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The recent news that a child abuser has been at large targetting young players at rugby clubs in West London is a stark warning that we can never let our guard down. I should point out that he has only been accused of various offences involving young boys between 2011 and 2015 and is yet to be found guilty, but all rugby clubs need to understand that it could happen to them. Click here for the Evening Standard article.

I have felt that there has been a degree of complacency in the rugby community that the game’s Core Values somehow make it immune to potential abusers. When the story of Barry Bennell’s historic abuses in football broke last year, there were a number of posts on social media implying that ‘this kind of thing’ is rare in rugby. At a subsequent RFU Council meeting abuse in the game was raised as a question and the RFU Safeguarding team, who do an excellent job, provided some statistics about how many cases they had investigated and the numbers were higher than most had expected.

During my 25 years working in the NHS I have come across some very distressing cases of child abuse and one thing is very clear; a paedophile will go to extraordinary lengths and wait years if necessary to get into a position of trust and gain access to children. The rugby abuser in question did not fit most people’s typical profile of a paedophile in that he was in his twenties and maybe that was why he was allowed more leeway than normal. He may have had a DBS check (which superseded the CRB check) but that would only show anything if he had been caught before.

Rugby is a welcoming and tolerant sport. I recently listened to Nigel Owens’ interview on Desert Island Discs and he said that without rugby he may not even be alive, so worried was he about the reaction of players and union officials to his coming out as gay. But he was treated like any other person and his sexuality simply wasn’t an issue. But it is that same tolerance a paedophile will use to his advantage along with the general supposition that anyone involved in rugby must be a ‘good guy’.

For the safety of our young players and the reputation of our sport, ask questions about anyone who you have any doubts about, particularly if they coach or manage any mini or youth squads. Try to make sure there are at least two adults at every coaching session and match, even if you have to press-gang some parents into helping. There should be no reason for adults to be in changing rooms when children are changing. Club Safeguarding Officers have an important role so speak to them if something doesn’t look right.

All this should be obvious to most people but don’t let complacency be the way in for an abuser.

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On Saturday England take on Scotland for what promises to be an enthralling game. If you are lucky enough to have a ticket for the game, join us for something to eat and drink before the game. Our main sponsor Greene King is kindly providing some mini kegs of their excellent beer while our Women & Girls Rugby sponsor Musk’s is generously donating loads of their delicious sausages for us to munch on. There will be wine, soft drinks and various nibbles too if beer & sausage aren’t your thing.

We will be in the Cardinal Vaughan car park (see map) from 1:30pm; look out for the Eastern Counties branded gazebo by a white Citroen 4×4.

We will try to get as close as we can to the entrance from the West Fan Village and we will post our exact location on social media on Saturday morning.

It would be great to see anyone associated with Eastern Counties rugby.

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At the February RFU Council meeting we received an update on the Payment of Players proposals. You can read the document by clicking here but in brief the update has recommendations in four areas:

The financial ranges for payments at certain levels of the game

Content of the annual declaration

Regulatory principles to implement proposals

Loss of entitlements for non-compliance with regulations

The recommendation for the financial thresholds at the various levels is that they should remain the same, but there is an allowance for player/coaches, so at Level 3 an additional £25k can be spent on a player coach, £20k at Level 4 and £15k at Level 5. At Level 6 and below the amount is £10k.

The annual declaration has an extra clause to allow the RFU to request financial or tax documentation and it clarifies that the four club officials who will sign it are the Chairman, President, Treasurer and Hon Secretary. This has been criticised in some quarters as unenforceable but as a contributor to a debate on Facebook said: ‘(A false declaration) will require clubs presenting dishonest financial returns and if it suits some will, but to get away with it they will have to defraud the RFU, the Tax Office and their members’. I think there would be few officials that would want to risk their own or their club’s reputation let alone the sanctions that would follow.

The funding entitlements that clubs that pay higher than the prescribed thresholds would lose have been added to. In my previous article I said that although clubs at Level 6 and below probably would feel some financial pain, those playing at Level 3 to 5 would probably not be very inconvenienced unless they wanted financial help with a facility upgrade.

However, the original list that included travel funding, the supplemental ticket funds and new RFU loans and grants have been added to:

Existing interest-free loans will be converted into interest-bearing loans

Previously awarded grants may be subject to a clawback if a club start to pay players above the permitted limits

Clubs at Levels 3 and 4 will lose the RFU subsidy for Match Officials costs, the effect of which is reckoned to be between £7k and £10k per club

The recommendations stopped short of withdrawing insurance cover and entitlement to international tickets, but the amounts are beginning to be more significant.

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Travelling to Cardiff for the Wales v England game I can’t help but think back to the games I have seen at the Principality Stadium. This will be the fifth Six Nations game I have seen there but it was a World Cup warm up game in 2011 which has the fondest memories. It was played in the summer on a beautiful warm sunny day and to be honest I can’t remember who won (I think it was the Welsh). But it was post match when the fun began.

I left the players’ dinner early with fellow Council Member Alex Murphy and went into the city which was a sea of red and white shirts as tens of thousands of English and Welsh supporters flooded the pubs and bars and celebrated the game of rugby and the healthy rivalry between the two nations. Alex and I were wearing our RFU blazers and we were submitted to good-natured banter from both sets of fans. The partying went on late into the night and I as far as I was concerned all was well with the relationship between the two old rivals.

Then came the nightmare of 2013 when an inexperienced England team was intimidated by a hostile crowd in a Grand Slam decider with Wales winning 30-3. Cardiff was not a happy place to be for an Englishman having to watch the Welsh celebrations on the pitch, then walking back to the hotel for the post-match function wearing and England Rugby coat I was verbally abused more than once. It wasn’t any different when England won in 2015 as I was called the same sort of names after that game too.

Clearly, playing England matters for the Welsh rugby fan and I had been fooled into a false sense of camaraderie in 2011, but I should point out that the majority of our friends over the bridge are nothing but good-natured and friendly to the English. This time around I will be better prepared.

Certainly the players will know what to expect and it wouldn’t surprise me if Eddie Jones played them parts of the 2013 game to remind them about the Welsh crowd and how intimidating they can be. His pre-match press conference alluded to Welsh ‘shenanigans’, referring to the attempt two years ago to get the England team out on the pitch early on a very cold evening and make them wait there while the Wales team stayed in the warm. My favourite phrase from Eddie was ‘They’re a cunning lot, the Welsh….they’ve got goats, they’ve got daffodils, they’ve got everything!’. Wales is probably better known for its sheep rather than its goats but I’ll wait to see if either play a part in the Welsh game plan.

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The concept of The Third Place is not a new one. In 1989 urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg wrote about how the ‘First Place’ is one’s home and family, the ‘Second Place’ is the workplace where many of us spend the majority of our waking hours, and the ‘Third Place’ is the social surroundings where you spend time away from the first two.

Examples of The Third Place are coffee shops (some even market themselves as such) community centres, pubs, bingo, etc., in other words places anyone can go to regardless of social status where you can be comfortable, chat with friends, where food and drink are available and which are accessible and relatively inexpensive. Sound familiar?

Before the 2015 Rugby World Cup the RFU’s facility strategy changed from one that was solely aimed at playing; changing rooms, pitches, floodlights, etc.; to encompass social spaces too with the intention of improving clubhouses to make them more attractive places to watch rugby. The hope was that as England progressed through the competition more people would think about watching the games at their local rugby club, and after experiencing the unique atmosphere in updated surroundings a new cohort of supporters would become club members.

A good plan on paper but it did rely on England at least making the quarter finals!

But with or without a World Cup as a catalyst, rugby clubs should be aiming to be the third place in their community, not just for players but for parents, supporters and potential new members too. Clubs with a mini section should try to encourage parents to stay in the clubhouse on a Sunday morning by offering hot drinks (a commercial coffee machine should be able to pay for itself), internet access and comfortable armchairs or sofas if space allows. A large screen TV on the wall helps to keep people engaged, although subscriptions costs for clubs to Sky or BT Sport are such that only the bigger clubs can justify the expense.

The same applies to midweek training be it adult or youth, but if the clubhouse is open anyway, is it not feasible to try to get some of the local residents to come for a social beer? The trick is to get the right kind of marketing campaign that shows the club as friendly and welcoming, perhaps starting with an open evening. A free glass of wine with a few nibbles may be enough to get some through the door; the rest is up to the people skills of the club’s volunteers.

This season’s NatWest RugbyForce programme is encouraging clubs to try the crowdfunding route where projects are funded by the wider community. Maybe it’s worth a putting together a Third Place project for your club that upgrades the social space, pays for some new furniture, upgrades the internet signal and funds a screen with a satellite TV subscription for a year.

Most, though not all, clubs are in a position to market themselves as the Third place in their community. All it needs is some imagination, determination, patience and the whole club behind the concept.